3rd Contact
by DW3321
Summary: Fleeing from the Reaper hordes an old transport ship will discover hope still burns brightly.
1. Prologue

3rd Contact

Prologue: From The Blue

By DW3321

* * *

**Author's Note: first thing first this will obviously be a crossover between Mass Effect and Freespace universes and all rights belong to their respective creators etc, purely for fan fiction purposes. Additionally I will be taking inspiration, ships, tech, history and perhaps characters also from mods made for Freespace 2 from hard-light .net including the Blueplanet mod(s) series and the recently released Shadow Genesis campaign so all those things belong to those involved in their creation. Additionally this will be my first fan fiction story. Now let's get on with the prologue (Slight rewrite to encourage greater empathy).**

* * *

"LENORA COME ON! GET THAT GODDESS SPIRIT WHATEVER DAMMED FTL ONLINE BEFORE THE REAPER GETS HERE UNLESS YOU LIKE THE IDEA OF BEING A MECHANICAL ZOMBIE," Captain Velaria shouted over the bridge comm to the Asari engineer swiftly followed by a hard hand slap down on the control panel, severing the connection. It was hard to sound intimidating being Salarian but the situation was dire. The ship had been floating in space freely for over three hours now after escaping from a Reaper attack and making matters worse the bridge was barely functional after a brutal scavenger hunt by Lenora's assistant, _damm Quarians_.

After that uncharacteristic outburst from his usual reserved self Velaria slouched back into his command chair, leaning exhaustedly on one arm contemplating the events of the past few months. The Reapers had been hitting every colony and industrial complex of outer Citadel Space. Word had reached the crew the previous hour that Palaven was now under siege with the Reapers having drawn much of the Turian fleet out into futile battles and the Batarians, well their worlds are all but lost with huskified abominations roaming every city.

* * *

**One day prior: Terran Calendar - 5th September 2392 – 0532**

"Captain, orders come through sir" the Turian first officer Veckal announced. She wasn't really officer material but was the best the Captain could do given conscription of him and his converted civilian transport ship into local defence forces, hauling vital HE3 fuel. "We are ordered to evacuate the HE3 facility and as much necessary equipment and personal as possible to continue HE3 fuel production, refugees are of secondary concern. Reaper capital ship sighted. Time until intercept 13 hours approximate." There was a brief two second silence while Veckal pondered what the Captain was thinking, what she could do to help but she was never the best at anything no matter how hard she tried, staring at the man as orange holograms flickered around the bridge illuminating the stress lines on the captain's face, _Spirits this thing is junk_.

"Very well, hail the HE3 facility tell them they have 9 hours to get themselves and gear stowed. XO, time until docking?"

XO Veckal glanced over to her right at the display, "19 minutes at max burn Captain."

"Make it so and inform the facility of our arrival time, I expect no delays"

"Aye aye Captain"

The XO began issuing out commands, _No delays? Who was he kidding! And where is that ship garrison, this is an important facility._

A modular design, the scared and grey ship accelerated as fast as it's weak mass effect fields would allow, the name having been scraped off long ago before the Reaper invasion with only it's number designation remaining, rumour had it that the Captain had donned a spacesuit and scraped it off by hand, no one knew why but there were theories. On any other occasion the situation might have made it into an ad for the Salarian merchant navy. A transport rocketing through space towards a gas giant, sunlight on it's flanks, small green fluorescent nebula in the background with stars twinkling around it and around those stars tens of thousands of malevolent eyes observing their harvest.

**11 hours** and **33** **minutes** later: The ship was still docked and someone spilt HE3 fuel over the cargo deck in the confusion. Refugees that found their way from the surrounding systems clogged the docking and freight terminal, jostling for a chance to be saved, many families crowded together reassuring spouses, children and friends, it was amazing what looming xenocide can do to people's dispositions, no longer able to escape for the confiscation of their vessels. A gathering of citadel and non citadel species, succeeding and some failing not to break down into sobs, "Mummy?" a little Asari asked. "Yes dear?" replied the mother. "Are we going away from the monsters?" "Yes dear, as far as we can."

**1** **minute** later: "CAPTAIN" the XO practically yelled in his ear, "sensor buoys have sighted a Reaper capital ship in the outer system."

_Damm, it's early. _"Contact docking, cast off immediately, any person or machinery we will just have to do without."

"Aye Sir."

"Ops, send a warning to the station, anyone who can get off meet us at these coordinates," stated the Captain while quickly typing on the hologram, "Standard encryption."

"Sir, standard encryption ciphering is insufficient against Reapers," interrupted the XO.

"I know that Commander, no one on that station is getting out of the system alive anyway, send the message."

Veckal looked stunned for a moment, "Sir..." Veckal nodded to the operations officer "...message sent."

Velaria looked at his XO, "There is nothing we can do for them, Veckal."

"Sir," Veckal turned back to her status board.

"Captain, docking reports they are holding the doors open for more people."

"What part of my orders did they not understand ... retract the docking arm Now"

"Sir we'll space civilians"

"Follow my orders NOW commander or I'll find someone else."

"Sir" Veckal tapped on the controls, "I-Its...done sir."

"Plot an FTL course to the coordinates we sent to the station, hold it for one minute drop out and change course to..." the captain scanned the galaxy map "...here, engage."

The shuddering old transport drifted free of the station, re-orientated, blue shifted and shot forward into FTL, with civilians still clutching each other and whatever they had left, floating in space amongst the debris and the Reaper Destroyer watching the crop flee.

* * *

**Reaper Destroyer POV**, also known as **Genesis**: Letting out a mental exasperation... _It's annoying when they do that._

* * *

**Back to reality**

"Veckal, get down there and help her, find out what's..." A bright blue flash suddenly lit up the port view "...what the hell is that?"

"Unknown sir."

* * *

_**Citadel Public Information Codex: The Subspace Mass Effect Dichotomy**_

_Subspace and mass effect, the relationship between the two could be described the same as matter and antimatter, two opposites that seemingly in each other's presence utterly annihilate each other. That is until the hybrid subspace mass warp drive system. In reality it is not really a hybrid between the two systems simply two independent FTL (Faster Than Light) systems working to cover each other's weakness, up until a certain point that is._

_Normally when you combine mass effect and subspace mechanics, lightening an object in a mass free envelope in a area of space with a high concentration of subspace radiation results in either a disappointing fizzling out of the core, or it swiftly heating up and melting into a unrecognisable mess on the engineering deck potentially flash frying the engineers._

_However this can be overcome using the warp FTL principles first explained by the human physicist Miguel Alcubierre (amazingly inspired directly by the pre computer era science fiction show Star Trek, which remains popular almost four hundred and fifty years later) and later significantly improved upon to make the energy requirements viable by other notable Earth physicists. Principles which incidentally are already used by Terran and Vasudan vessels in a sub-light capacity to propel their vessel efficiently in combination with their standard plasma fusion and ion drive._

_Instead of utilising element zero to create a mass free envelope, an almost non-existent element in GTVA (Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance) space due to its destabilisation by subspace radiation, the space in front of the vessel is compressed while the space behind is expanded propelling the vessel to faster than light speed while avoiding the problem of relativity, moving the normal space round the ship instead of travelling through it. The element zero core however still requires significant radiation and energy shielding to prevent a meltdown. Speed is currently limited to approximately ten times the speed of light, faster drives are expected with anticipated the conclusion of project Fireflash at the alliance's high level physics complex in the Beta Aquilae system. An interesting side note is that the warp drive works conventionally without the use of element zero for FTL in areas lacking in significant quantities of subspace radiation, further amplifying the paradox of the subspace element zero relationship._


	2. Hope Blinds Green

3rd Contact

Chapter 1: Hope Blinds Green

By DW3321

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**20 minutes earlier, GTCv Vesper.**

Strolling along the lowly illuminated metallic grey flight deck of the GTCv Vesper to simulate a night cycle, Ensign Williams was looking forward to hitting the rack after an excruciatingly boring combat air patrol. Perhaps the boredom came from her anticipated promotion. _Yeah sure, _she thought, _Fucking Politics._

The Vesper, a Deimos class refit (carrier variation), had been assigned with the 31st battle group to explore recently discovered jump nodes to see if they could find a shortened way to the cut off Wolf's Group systems. Spending years in cryogenic stasis wasn't exactly attractive with the new warp drive and given what they already knew was out there the risk was too great. That said the temptation to return to Earth was an exception, with an expedition being prepared from Wolf 359 to Sol being the closest subspace accessible system to Earth available to the GTVA since the collapse of the Sol - Delta Serpentis subspace node, just over 7 light years away.

Williams turned into a small debriefing room off the cramped flight deck, while being silently escorted by her virtual mute of a wingman Geoff. _What the hell was his last name? _She flustered over, walking straight into the Wing Commander, head over...boots onto the deck. Her wingman just stood there with the emotional range of a vegetable, taking in the two on the floor and continued to his seat.

After the commander had scraped herself off the floor she muttered under her breath "how the hell does she weigh so much," with a rather rosy looking Williams standing to attention in the standard red and grey flight suit.

Vesper wing commander Wu was a rather stout looking woman with short messy brown hair, originally of Chinese descent and accent but could make a banshee cringe. "O'Brian, please leave for a moment." Waiting until he left, the Commander turned to Williams, "I'm sorry Ensign, your promotion has been rejected." A tweak barely registered across Williams face. "However it doesn't mean your skills are any less valued on this ship...I'm cutting this short but I have a special assignment for you."

"Maam."

Activating the holoscreen behind her, "This, we picked up this on long range sensors drifting through the other side of the system. Obviously some kind of ship, probably damaged with minimal energy readings and a possible first contact situation. The Captain has already contacted Admiral Dresher at the node and he has authorised a scouting mission. You'll be flying the Pegasus stealth fighter we have aboard, scan and observe while staying at least 2000 kilometres away. Given the state of the vessel I doubt it could detect a Pegasus even at point blank but it is a first contact situation and thus should be treated on the side of caution. Any questions? Good, now get to your ship."

"Maam." Williams nodded and walked back onto the flight deck.

"Huh", _seems her wingman did some good couldn't keep her quiet before, woman loves gossip._ "O'BRIAN! Time for your debriefing."

* * *

**GTCv Vesper - Flight Deck.**

Williams eagerly climbed into the sleek black and blue streaked delta shaped Pegasus. Development of the advanced stealth recognisance fighter was a war winner, now invisible to most electromagnetic and subspace scanners at point blank range. It had a beautiful Razor thin profile, fast and manoeuvrable with a powerful enough reactor to mount even the most power hungry weaponry like the original Prometheus rapid fire plasma cannon, key in winning the first Shiven incursion. Although it was the Vasudan version, the Ptah class, which played a greater role at the time of development during the second incursion obtaining detailed subsystem scans of the 6km long Shivan Sathanas class Juggernaut, one of an entire armada. Those days were perhaps darker than when the then separate and recently warring GTA (Galactic Terran Alliance) & PVE (Parliamentary Vasudan Empire) faced the invulnerable Lucifer Super Destroyer.

Finishing hooking herself up to the fighter, the systems check completed and was passed through to launch control. The HUD, heads up display, appeared before her eyes through the neural interface. The redundant in ship HUD was still available, but every advantage was needed.

"Cleared to launch Pegasus 31-29," came over the headset.

"Rodger that."

Shooting forward out of rear facing bay Williams quickly re-orientated and activated the subspace engine. The sound simulators reverberated the peculiar sound of a substance portal opening and then the swirling blue tunnel of subspace. _And there's the exit, just a quick hop._

"FUCK!" Whoever provided those coordinates was going to get their arse kicked. She had emerged less than 500 meters off the port front quarter of the unknown ship, there had been no way she wasn't seen.

* * *

**HE3 Transport Bridge.**

"Unknown Sir" Veckal flatly stated

"See that, I don't think it meant to do whatever that was this close, it just did a 180 degree flip and flashed its engines...hmm going ballistic," stated the Captain thinking aloud. "Sensors?"

"Nothing sir, but I think we might have just been scanned, slight interference with deck 3 electronics, it's not very well shielded with the part stripping Veetor's been doing."

"Looked alien, no fighter I've ever seen, obviously FTL transit of some kind," this distraction had significantly improved the Captain's disposition, still watching where the object had been. "Send out a wide band hail and the citadel first contact package."

"Aye Sir." Veckal replied giving instructions to the VI, but just as she finished.

"Alert," Sounded the VI, "three Reaper destroyer class vessels incoming, guardian point defence offline, Mass Effect Field Core offline, One thousand three hundred and twenty seven life signs currently aboard."

"GET TO THE CORE, HELP LENORA NOW!" bellowed Velaria at his XO who immediately began to sprint off down the hallway to Lenora.

"Two minutes until intercept," the Salarian VI stated glibly.

Hurriedly thinking, _three destroyers? That's a bit of overkill for a transport. What are they after...it must be that other cargo and strange Asari doctor we brought aboard._

"Alenna..." to the small Asari ops officer, "...get to the refugee bay, distribute what weapons we have and get every biotic capable of fighting to form a barricade outside the aft bay entrance...I think were about to be boarded." Alenna looked horrified as she had seen firsthand what the Reapers did to Asari, even to her sister. Almost tripping out of her chair she scrambled down the hall as fast as her legs would carry.

After she had left Velaria announced, "Ship, send this message wideband." _Knowing it would either bring help or at least create a distraction long enough to escape, hopefully._

"Ready."

"Unknown vessel, this is..."

* * *

**Pegasus Cockpit.**

Ensign Williams was still strapped into the Pegasus cockpit and travelling ballistic passing a distance of 500km now from what seemed to be a transport, HUD still magnifying it in the distance. "Incoming Data Package... initial structure indicates first contact package. Pass to fleet net?" sounded the computer.

"Confirmed, authorised upload to fleet subspace net."

"Uploading...upload complete."

_Great, no doubt I'll get blame for being discovered by the higher ups._

"We have received the data Gamma 1, translating now." Came from command but was interrupted by the VI.

"Warning...three unknown ships detected entering sensor range, possible warships, profile indicates 87% match to cruiser classification, laser point defence system identified, other unknown weapon systems likely. Gravity anomaly found, possible defensive system."

"Magnify and enhance," visage shifting to the unknowns. "Display relative solar plane position and explain last." She couldn't see much detail at this range but, those incomings looked...odd.

"Clarifying, similarity to energy shielding system."

That made Williams raise an eyebrow, _this could be very problematic._ Energy shielding for large ships was still beyond the GTVA's capabilities because of particle scatter and huge energy requirements.

"Addition, element zero presence detected."

_Same as that transport, rescue perhaps?_

"Incoming electromagnetic transmission."

A crackled voice came over the set. "Unknown vessel, this is...," she couldn't understand it yet but guessed it was directed at her given the channel's open nature and not the three new unknowns. "... Captain Velaria of the citadel council transport _Sanla Velaria, _requesting assistance, we have over thirteen hundred refugees aboard, under attack by Reaper destroyers, possible boarding operations. The Reapers are monsters, the great destroyers, at this moment all across the galaxy they are exterminating countless trillions from over a dozen different species, purposely targeting advanced space faring races, we cannot stop them, vital information aboard. Requesting assistance."

The message continued to repeat over the radio, having been automatically passed to the subspace net, for a few minutes while the unknowns got closer into boarding range.

_(__**I recommend putting on "John Dreamer - Becoming A Legend (Epic Dramatic Choral Uplifting)" for dramatic effect until the chapter end).**_

"Gamma 1, command here, translation complete on first contact package, downloading new language profiles to your fighter."

"Confirmed command." Williams stated while bringing up the language list on the side HUD. "Play back last transmission from unknown transport."

As Williams listened, becoming increasingly agitated she watched the heat signatures from whatever those things were that floated over, making their way through the ship towards the large rear heat signature, when her HUD lit up.

"Emergency..." the cockpit VI spoke up "62% match to Shivan electronic signatures, initialising OMEGA contingency, notifying fleetnet."

_Son of bitch._

"Ah...Screw it." _I'm not going to leave them to die at the hands of some basterdised Shivans_ "...Initiate systems power up, transfer weapons power feed to engines, plot intercept to transport... here." Highlighting it on the display. "Increase reactor output to 115%._"_

"Warning...increased reactor activity will reduce time until service, stealth systems may be compromised."

"Override, OMEGA contingency."

"Confirmed." The engines silently roared to life in the vacuum and the Ensign was forced back into the seat, more acceleration than the dampener's could handle.

"Command, I'm going to help them."

"Understood Gamma, Vesper is already en-route and charging her drives, ETA 2 minutes. Admiral Dresher is deploying additional reinforcements from the Node but there 15 minutes out. You and the Vesper are to hold these Reapers off until then Gamma, Bloodhounds Alpha and Beta fighter wings will launch from the Vesper."

* * *

**Onboard the Sanla Velaria, Aft section Corridor B.**

The captain and crew hit the deck as dozens of mass effect enhanced rounds passed over their heads, interrupted by the occasional sound of a grenade cooking off. The piles of cargo the crew and refugees had hastily made into a barricade had being doing its job at least, gruesomely reinforced by the bodies of friend and foe alike. Their weapons and biotics were barely functioning; fortunately the same could be said of the Reapers. Lenora and Veetor had shouted something about radiation with there being no way they could fix the core without appropriate shielding; they would have to hope that the new contact came to their aid. To the Captain's right; tech, incineration and cryo blasts were flying from Veetor and a few Volus.

Too late for aid it seemed, a brute had a moment ago managed to crash through the barricade sending the defenders flying. Some of the defenders managed get back to the biotic barrier several Asari had setup but others weren't so lucky and were set upon by ravenous huskified Batarians. Vickal just made it with a wounded Volus in arms and escorted by disturbingly ferocious looking Veetor covered in husk bits.

_Dammit, _Velaria had come to a decision_._ "FALL BACK! INSIDE THE BAY, SHORE UP THE DOORS."

No one wasted any time in getting away from the monsters bearing down upon them. The bay doors swiftly closed, severing a Marauder in half...vertically, being stared at by a few upfront screaming refugees.

"SHUT THE HELL UP," yelled the captain. "You, Asari...," it turned out to be his ops officer Alenna barely recognisable through the blood and grime. "...organise biotic reinforcement of that door." The brutes were already beginning to bang on the outside, echoing throughout the deck amongst the refugee sobs. "And Veckal, hand me that grenade belt."

The XO just looked at him understanding and handed over the belt.

"Alenna, when the doors close behind me and use biotics to reinforce it, keep a barrier between me and the rest." A teary nod came back. "Veckal, prepare to open the doors."

The XO positioned herself near the door controls, pistol raised and aimed at the central door slit. "Opening th...what the shit?"

A large shadow had just passed over the bay from the starboard observation window, quickly diverting all attention. And a small smile crept over the Captain's face, _it worked_. The black triangle shaped ship rose up and appeared just down from the doors in the Reaper troop infested corridor, now with clearly visible blue highlights across the hull like veins, blacked out cockpit and gun ports.

_Hope Blinds Green_, as the new saying goes. Huge green slugs of...something shot out from the front of the craft, dazzling the observing crew and refugees so much that they all immediately lifted a hand to their eyes. Blindness was the least worrying thing the Reaper boarders had to concern themselves about. Chucks of troops could be seen flying out of the huge smouldering holes into space that were being systematically being punched out along the corridor access deck. The last brute launched itself in an attempt to climb onto the craft's nose but was swiftly vaporised by the unknown green energy bolts.

No sooner had the Reaper boarding party been decimated its backup arrived in the form of six Oculus, two simultaneous red optical laser beams hit the dorsal shields on the strange ship. It must have been as much a surprise to the Oculus and observing Reaper destroyers, as it was from the refugee front seat view from which an audible gasp was heard. No known barrier system in existence was capable of repelling energy weapons, though should have come as no surprise given the obvious energy weaponry utilised by the craft.

"Ship..," the captain stated. "...are you recording this?" A swift "Affirmative" came, followed by a question from a refugee. "What is that?"

The Captain replied not turning around from the display before him, "Our new allies hopefully, they were observing us while we drifted before the Reapers showed up. I might have manipulated them into helping."

The Doctor would have said more but the craft swiftly began evasive manoeuvres in front of the crowding refugees, too concerned now in watching the flaunt.

* * *

**Genesis POV.**

If Genesis and his compatriots had eyebrows they might have raised them both, immediately recognising the subspace emissions from a jump drive and the uncanny similarity of the initial particle energy shield configuration. Genesis sounded out to his fellows, _this is most disturbing, it appears the other half have failed to upkeep the agreement. Forwarding all data to Harbinger...complete._

Incoming Transmission: _Capture that craft, failure will not be tolerated, Harbinger OUT!_

_So be it_. The three destroyers resonated as they began pursuit, mass effect fields straining against the local subspace radiation.

* * *

_**Citadel Public Information Codex: Alliance Energy Shielding Systems**_

_A shield is an energy-based defensive barrier which completely surrounds the vessel on which it is equipped, and serves to absorb the damage dealt to that vessel from hostile fire. Shields also deflect the force of explosions and shock-waves, making them an invaluable tool for bomber pilots. However shields do not protect against photon beam cannon weaponry that were developed following the first Shivan incursion, designed to penetrate the massive shielding system of the Lucifer class super destroyer (super dreadnought, if converted to citadel designation standards)._

_Energy shielding systems were first encountered by the Alliance in combat against shield equipped Shivan fighter and bomber craft, proving nigh invulnerable to most laser based weaponry of the time equipped on the opposing Terran and Vasudan fighters, bombers, civilian craft and some low level capital ships._

_However having learned to swiftly adapt during the 14 year Terran/Vasudan war, capture operations were undertaken by various flights and in GTI (Galactic Terran Intelligence) operations. Using these examples Terran and Vasudan, scientists and engineers created their own versions and weapons to counter them utilising their massive war economy to mass produce the new shields and weaponry, helping turning the tide of war. Perhaps a great surprise to the Shivans who now faced fighters and bombers comparable to their own._

* * *

**Author's Note: Thanks for those who reviewed and all others who took the time to read. Also for those wondering the specifics of what the ships look like and weaponry a simple Google image search for the ship classes will bring them up, there's also a wiki page on hard-light. That said I will include some occasional codex entries on races and ships from a future perspective. Also for those familiar with Freespace there will be some rescaling as the game is scaled to be like a 1st person shooter in space with ships though still epic, for example combat speeds, cruise speeds, technical explanations for close range dog fighting. Basically the guide I'm using is times range and speed game characteristics by 1000. Effective ranges/combat will be different and explained later. Original games rights and mods belong to their respective creators. A very cool fan made trailer remake can be found on YouTube, if you search for "FSOpen Trailer Final Current" that will demonstrate some fs2 era ships in action; make sure to watch it in full screen HD for the best effect. Suggestions would be nice.**


	3. Hope Blinds Green Part 2

3rd Contact

Chapter 2: Hope Blinds Green Part 2

Written by DW3321

* * *

**Turian Advanced Frigate: unofficially called Palaven's Reach, 6 hours earlier.**

The Reach, a Spectre requisitions custom Palaven class advanced frigate granted to Spectre Garrus Vakarian after Spectre Nihlus Kryik was gravely injured while combating the indoctrinated Saren Arterius, still at large. Critical subsystems have had extra armour reinforcement, cyclonic barriers have been added, thermal stealth systems, synchronised disrupter torpedoes and tri-barrelled miniaturised mass accelerator cannon.

Orange holograms surround the typical Turian command deck arrangement, with crew members diligently working away at their positions with the commander overlooking their subordinates. Spectre Vakarian scanned the deck, observing the crewmen and considering the recent war developments, it wasn't good. If something drastic didn't happen soon, within four months all citadel member species would be effectively extinct. Invasion of the Asari home world, Thessia, is imminent and the Asari are unlikely to be able to put up meaningful resistance on the ground despite an entirely biotic population. The Salarians were relatively untouched sticking their froggy heads in the sand hoping in naivety that the Reapers will pass them by. Garrus wondered if he should order his contacts in the STG and Salarian Spectres to initiate a coup against the idiot Dalatrass removing her as the leader of the Salarian Union on charges of gross incompetence, bringing the Salarians into the war. Despite the Salarian council member being strangely bold in support of the war or maybe because of it, a coup was an action he was beginning to seriously consider.

"Report from the doctor, Spectre, she has arrived at the facility. Message is time stamped 21 hours ago." piped up the Turian communications officer.

"How long until we arrive in system Lieutenant?" replied Spectre Vakarian

"Just gone 14 minutes Spectre."

_Why didn't we get this sooner? _"Any other contact? Problems with the QEC network?"

"Negative sir."

Furrowing his brow, "Odd. Engineering?"

"Yes Garrus?" A high pitched slightly synthetic voice answered back.

"We need more speed, something is wrong. Can you overload the engines a bit?"

"Yes, but I'll have to crawl around in the ducts to fix the damage within the next 48 hours to prevent permanent damage, it will use up at least a third of the omni-gel elements we have aboard and we'll lose FTL for at least 5 hours while I fix it." A voice quickly answered slightly concerned.

"Get it done," came in a firm toneless reply. "I'll owe you another drink."

"Three by my count you bosh'tet, more than that now. Make it up tonight, you better do a good job of it."

"Love you too," came with a smile. "What?" he said to the few strange looks that edged his way. _Damn Fleet and Flotilla._ Right after that thought a sharp jolt shook the frigate.

"Maximum speed has increased to 133% of normal, increasing to flank." The nearby operations officer stated

"Good. Time?"

"30 seconds," came the reply while the ship began to shudder. "5...4...3...2...1...Exiting FTL."

"Evasive!" Debris surrounded the exit point, the facility was not small and chucks the size of the frigate among others formed a slightly harrowing gauntlet, with what were clearly body parts impacting the hull and cockpit, eventually with the frigate weaving its way out the quagmire. "Oh no. Scan for life signs! Any signals?"

"Scanning...None sir, but we've located a black box signal locator still attached to the station superstructure."

"Bring it aboard. Get Tali on it." The frigate carefully spent the next few minutes approaching the superstructure piece and utilised its manoeuvring thrusters to match rotation with the spinning debris allowing it to deploy a maintenance drone for black box retrieval.

"I'll be on the cargo deck," said Garrus, turning round and proceeding into the lift. _By the spirits there has to be some information on what happened to the Doctor T'soni. The message Liara sent said what she had could win the war, blueprints for a Prothean super weapon. Relying on blasted Prothean technology is what got them into this mess in the first place._ The lift doors opened again onto the cargo deck revealing the lump of facility superstructure being buzzed around by technicians and drones alike and Tali stood centre stage shouting out orders. "What have we got?"

"Thing is scorched this side of Rannoch and up the other."

"Colourful," Garrus stated raising a brow. "Nothing recoverable then?"

"I didn't say that, I am a genius, I got you that Geth data on Saren for you." Said Tali, fiddling with her omni-tool.

"Didn't help Nihlus much." Tali's glowing eyes narrowed through her mask, glaring daggers. "Sorry," said Garrus earnestly.

"Just a sec...done, just extracting the data now."

"Done. That's it?"

"What's wrong Vakarian, feeling useless...unused." said Tali seductively, while Garrus stood there, mandibles slightly agape and embarrassed in front of the deck crew.

"Data extraction complete," the VI said out loud.

"Hmm...Record indicates the facility was attacked by Reapers." Said Tali, looking over the data.

"Obviously," replied Garrus eying the scorched debris spread across the shuttle deck, immediately regretting it. Fortunately Tali was too involved in her work to notice, otherwise he might have suddenly found his armour in the morning...redecorated or with a new fragrance.

"Reaper destroyer...facility received a transmission prior to destruction from a Salarian transport Captain Velaria."

"Captain Velaria, I know him used to be STG. Required reading for spectres..."

"Gave them coordinates to escape to before he left with some of the refugees, strange." Said Tali, examining the data stream.

"What?"

"Encryptions bad...easily cracked."

"Sounds like him. What were the coordinates?"

"Here, between systems," said Tali pointing on the omnitool display.

"Hopefully the doctor got aboard. He won't be there, we'll look in these systems to the Galactic south. XO," Garrus tapped his omni-tool.

"Nihlus here." The scarred Turian said, struggling to reach his Omni tool with the freshly attached prosthesis, not yet fully integrated with his nervous system.

"I'm sending some coordinates up, we need to search those systems I highlighted, get us there ASAP," said Garrus while deactivating his omni-tool. "I'll be on the bridge Tali, call me if you have anything else."

* * *

**William's POV, Pegasus Stealth Fighter, Present Time.**

"God damn it," cursed Williams. Those thermal laser beams maybe weak and even bled into to optical spectrum but they were deadly accurate and a whole lot of those ball things, minimum of a few dozen of them hounding her tail. At least as she gambled correctly they were taking care not to hit the transport she was manoeuvring around, allowing her to get in a few Prometheus cannon shots vaporising some of her attackers. Their weapons maybe a load of shit but the armour was comparatively reasonable enough to ward off a shot and two for a glancing one that wasn't in that central laser eyeball thing. Still her shields were quickly draining and armour was beginning to receive energy bleed through, the Pegasus just wasn't built for prolonged combat.

"Oh crap," William's eyes widened as she rounded the transport's engine block as one of those crab or squid cruisers loomed not 5km away striking out with its point defences against the Pegasus.

VI: "Warning shield integrity at 15%...12...8...5...2..."

A violent jolt shock the cockpit as the Pegasus was knocked into a spin and scraped the side of the transport with a horrific metal on metal sound that was heard inside the Pegasus and transport.

VI: "Alert port engine off-line, energy transfer systems damaged, reactor power at 27%, weapons systems negative, communications degraded, armour breached, hull integrity at 43%."

"Shut up already I can see that fine."

VI: "Confirmed," came in an emotionless voice.

"Command I have sustained significant damage, weapons down, reactor critical, hull compromised, manoeuvring to eject towards unknown transport, arming self destruct," shouted out Williams.

* * *

**Genesis POV**

"Excellent, Occuli attach to that craft and bring it to me, husks retrieve the organic pilot for data extraction and indoctrination." Two Occuli quickly approached and attempted to attach to the ventral and dorsal surfaces.

Genesis mockingly sounded out, "Foolish organic thinks to escape us," cruelly watching the organic flee its craft for the frog creature's freighter.

Incoming transmission from destroyer Fallen: "Do Not Be Overconfident, their technology is impressive and have obviously survived our cousins, it's reinforcements will already be on the way."

"I am the older you will provide only tactical information and cease utilising organic metaphors," Genesis angrily responded.

"Understood."_ Fool. _Floating nearby Fallen opened a QEC connection to the third destroyer Insunarin, yet to choose a name. "Let Genesis engage the coming enemy first."

"Agreed."

* * *

**On board the Sanla Velaria, 2 Minutes Prior, Aft Cargo Section.**

Captain Velaria observed as a googol of hushed voices could be constantly heard as the surviving crew and volunteers continued to reinforce the doors with every item that wasn't fixed down. The light and sound of forcing, welding and biotic crushing was under way by Turian, Salarian, Volus, Asari and even the odd Hanar, Drell and Elcor alike. The sounds of work could be heard and glimpsed throughout the now darkened bay, and sometimes seen on the lit up, worried, mucky faces of refugees.

"Veetor what progress have you made?" glibly stated Captain Velaria.

"Trying...trying... all these distractions," Veetor responded, panic clearly heard in his voice.

"I don't care about excuses, if you can't reroute FTL and Navicon access through here were all dead."

"I know...know know know know...the blood."

"Get a hold of yourself Veetor," the Captain shouted as he roughly grabbed the Quarian to shake him out of his panic, staring him in the eyes. "The chief is dead and I'm counting on you to do this, ignore everything else and keep calm, you can do this."

"Y-y-y-ess s-s-ir."

"Again."

"Y-y-es sir."

"Again."

"Yes, sir."

"Good Man." The Captain continued to watch Veetor do his work. Occasionally stealing glances outside at the Occuli pursuing the blue glowing alien fighter. The thing was under almost constant bombardment from the Occuli, shielding reacting iridescently against the black as the hits came.

The occasional cheer came from the refugees as the alien got in a few good shots vaporising or holing the Occuli through, illuminating the bay with greater intensity, though most we still very subdued. Then the alien craft was hit badly and screeched across the transport's side for all to hear and wince at, with a few clutching their particular ears and being knocked off their feet. Several dazed seconds later a small sun erupted as the craft self destructed, containing two Occuli within the explosion.

The many of the crew and refugees stumbled to their feet while some still sat. Veckal was able to stay upright having been holding a handrail at the time and with her clearance quickly accessed what little outside sensor systems were still available to the shipboard VI. "What happened VI?"

"Close range nuclear detonation, 300 meters off front starboard quarter. Detonation contained within unknown energy field matching shielding system of unknown fighter. Alert: hard radiation detection, gamma and x-ray burst. Addition: pilot eject, manoeuvring towards access hatch."

"Sir you get that?"

"I heard," replied the Captain. "Veetor, can we get to the pilots predicted position through the access ducts?"

"No, vacuum seal, would decompress the bay. Maybe...use biotics to prevent atmosphere escape opening the starboard door."

"Captain," Veckal interrupted while monitoring the internal cameras. "That's no good the Reapers troops are back again there blocking the way, going after the pilot."

Alenna frantically spoke up having also recovered, "We have to do something!"

Veckal grasped her hands together while the Reaper closed in for the kill and solemnly said "Spirits be with that brave soul." Not a second later a huge dreadnought sized replica of the alien FTL exit appeared blotting out all light except that emitted from its self across local space and through the cargo section windows. "...Spirits be dammed."

A wall of dark matt grey armour emerged from the swirling blue portal against the blackness of space. The viewing windows were completely encompassed by the ship exiting FTL at such close range and not a sound was heard across the deck, either because everyone held their breath even the Volus or the VI sound simulators were not able to make heads or tails of the phenomenon. Three light blue glowing engines stuck out from the ship, two arranged ventrally across its belly at least 600 meters apart. A third much larger engine, covered at the sides with slabs of armour and turrets, bulged from the rear. The bulky but streamlined ship could be described as if someone had welded a rectangular and square lump of armour together end to end smoothing off the edges and connections, adding huge engines, turrets and a humpback as an afterthought. If a brick could fly and had guns, that's what it would look like, pretty damn intimidating as well. Turrets upon the ship appeared few in number but huge in comparison to the standard non spinal weapons that citadel ships enjoyed. Despite the awkward view the front of the warship could be seen to glow green. Two, contained but fiery, cylindrical green beams shot out towards the Reaper destroyer slashing diagonally across the top half and lower tentacle sections. Molten globs of Reaper metal floated free and when the slash had finished huge glowing canyons could be seen across the destroyer, almost completely severing it into three pieces.

**(Author's Note: "Killer Tracks - Titan Warfare" is the theme I used to help inspire the following GTCv Vesper scenes and I think it goes well if you want to put it on, I always use themes like these to help inspire writing scenes.)**

VI: "Incoming transmission from unknown dreadnought," was announced over the intercom since the Captain had left private mode off.

Unknown Dreadnought: "This is Captain Sobchack of the Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance corvette GTCv Vesper on station and ready to assist. Report status...repeat unknown transport report status."

Captain Velaria: _Corvette? How in the?_ He could not have been the only one to think that given the furrowed looks across the crew and refugees. Tapping on his glowing omni-tool the captain responded.

* * *

**CIC (Command Information Centre), GTCv Vesper.**

Stood in the centre of the CIC was a fairly stout man though in good health and quite a boxing fan with short black hair, a clean pop marked face and gravelly voice. Captain Sobchack gave quite a stern impression about the air, standing there in his prim dark blue and gold trimmed uniform. He carefully observed the pale green display being projected before him, being supplemented by the neural interface.

"Target crippled Captain," the auburn haired female CSD (combat systems division) officer stated. "Beams charging 30 seconds. Secondary plasma batteries continuing fire. Point defences intercepting enemy drones." Plasma bolts continued to pour from many of the fixed and transversable turrets across the hull in shades of green and yellow, tearing apart what was left of the Reaper destroyer. Occuli like angry bees buzzed around the ship striking out at the armour plating. However the Occuli unable to overcome the polarisation of the armour, despite being incredibly nimble, were quickly shredded by anti-fighter plasma beam fire and flak bursts.

"Bloodhounds Alpha and Beta launching now sir," came from the air department followed by the operations lead. "Receiving response from transport, some distortion, attempting cleanup."

"Patch it to me...this is Sobchack receiving you what is your status?"

**"**This is Velaria, captain of this transport, were fine for the moment but you have bigger problems. Your pilot lives and made it aboard but my engineer reports Reaper troops have now accessed our command system so to escape with us and with your pilot. They will capture then force every piece of information and whatever your species is out, turning that pilot against you. It is fate worse than death for all aboard and I do not need to explain the dangers of such a capture."

"SCom (Subspace Communcation Section) get on the Net we need a heavy assault rescue opp priority black," said the Captain quickly snapping his head round to the officer. "Captain Velaria standby," stated Sochack, closing the channel.

"Aye sir," came back from the SCom officer interacting with the VI. "Fleetnet responding sir, Special Operations Command Destroyer Normandy has just finished transiting the node and is crash jumping to our position. Main battle group drive charge is almost complete, 10 minutes to this side of the system. Fleetnet has posted an alert that element zero presence on the systems third planet is distorting subspace so that transit time is significantly increased. The problem has been passed to science division."

"Operations here," sounded another voice. "Two Reaper cruisers on intercept at 20,000km, heat blooms on probable weapons, ECM is minimal. Additional, the transport is beginning to pull away.

Captain Sobhack: _Hmm unusually little ECM, standard ECM usually results in knife fight ranges, surprise is in our favour. _"Combat, can you hit them?"

"Yes sir, however beam magnetic bottle will be narrowed significantly, we can bombard them with plasma bolts at greater effectiveness."

"Commence firing at your discretion, salvo mode, keep them at skirmish ranges. Helm, stay within 20km of the transport and don't lose them. Being so close to their prize should help reduce their fire but prepare for evasive manoeuvres."

* * *

_**Citadel Public Information Codex: Pegasus Stealth Fighter Self Destruct**_

_Normally the multi megaton detonation of the Pegasus's fusion core would have been enough to destroy most pre-alliance contact craft without shields or energy wash capability. However, because of the Pegasus's highly classified nature instead of the self destruct of individual systems, a complete destruction small single use flash shield system is erected to contain the explosion long enough for the ships atoms to be vaporised into uselessness._

_**Citadel Public Information Codex: **__**ECM**_

_All Alliance ships, including civilian, are equipped with electronic counter measure (ECM) suites designed to mask power and a variety of other electromagnetic readings. This significantly reduces engagement ranges down to what would usually be considered knife fight ranges for mass accelerator based ships. This is not to suggest that such ships are useless, after all the Alliance does field a variety of artillery ships._

_**Citadel Public Information Codex: **__**Photon Beam Weaponry**_

_Being capable of at least matching Shivan firepower and based on the same principle as that observed from the Lucifer super destroyer (super dreadnought) beam weaponry, the Alliance photon beam weapon was born. The advancement of the beam weapon in the Terran and Vasudan fleets is sufficient enough to enable the most powerful anti-capship beam from either race to easily cleave through most cruisers and corvettes (dreadnoughts) in minutes and deal significant damage to destroyers (super dreadnoughts), if not destroying them outright._

_Most Terran and Vasudan beam weapons are short range weapons meant to be fired at a specified power output, dealing a consistent rate of damage assuming that the beam in question strikes its target for the entire duration of its lifetime. However, if the situation warrants, it is also possible to reduce power output to limit damage done, or increase power output beyond specified limits to increase damage rates and or range; the latter comes with the risk of emitter and heat sink deterioration._

_Despite these advances, neither species was ultimately capable of matching up to the Shivans at the time of the Second Shivan Incursion in 2367._


End file.
